i woke up this morning to do more cleaning. i cleaned up the guest bedroom closet. i decided to throw away my two broken round ikea ottomans that i had stashed in the closet for nearly 2 decades. i also decided to move my unused desktop PC's (a mac G4 and a windows PC) to the basement, haven't touched them in ages. finally i swapped out my winter clothes (sweaters, flannel plants) with summer clothes (mostly shorts).
i stopped cleaning by 10am so i could ride to harvard vanguard and pick up my mother's losartan prescription. patients and workers no longer have to wear masks now, and i saw the pharmacist for the very first time without a mask. she recognized me right away, even though she'd never seen me without a mask either.
afterwards i went to market basket to get some supplies for the cafe: milk, bean sprouts, garlic, scallions, frozen peas, black tea. i came home briefly before heading to the cafe for work by 11am. riding by rc kelley road, i noticed a guy sitting next to the giant elm tree, with what seems to be tubes circling the trunk. i knew what he was doing but asked anyway. he was injecting the tree with fungicide, to keep it from contracting dutch elm disease. he said the tree itself is pretty healthy, which is what i like to hear.
my mother had already started boiling a new batch of tea eggs, while it was up to me to prepare the tea egg brine and simmer it for an hour. my mother made some lunch for herself (noodles) before baking some frozen spring rolls for my father and me. my father wore the new croc knockoffs to work today, replacing the old pair of croc knockoffs he'd been as work shoes. these shoes were originally purchased to be used as backyard gardening shoes, we can always order another pair from temu.
like yesterday, today wasn't very busy. so much so that i returned home around 2:30pm to continue cleaning. i stopped by the community garden first to do some quick watering. i ended up staying for an hour, first chatting with ann, then chatting with david.
so my new roommate lauryn isn't scheduled to arrive in boston until 9:50pm, flying out from hong kong with a stop in chicago. that meant i have 6+ hours to finish cleaning the house. i started by moving things down to the basement, including boxes of magazines (finally got rid of the last of those), my two computers, an assortment of empty jars, and a small unused side table. i ended up tossing out a cd tower, not sure if i'll ever need to use that again. next i moved on to the fridge, clearing out some space so lauryn can stash some groceries. likewise i did the same with the cupboards, clearing out about 1/3rd. i also rewrapped my stove top with new heavy duty aluminum foil. i finished by vacuuming the entire house. it was 7pm by the time i was done.
for dinner i finished the rest of my leftover pasta salad, along with a hot italian sausage, a grilled drumstick, some homemade lemonade, and two gold nugget oranges. my mother called me, said my sister told her lauryn's flight out of hong kong was delayed an hour, so she might miss her connecting flight out of chicago. so there could be a chance she'll either arrive later tonight, or possibly tomorrow morning.
earlier while moving things from the house onto the backyard porch, i got a splinter when i walked out barefoot. the tip must've broken off because i couldn't see it anymore, and i assumed it fell out. but later in the evening it kept bothering me, so i checked it more carefully, and sure enough, there was still a piece of splinter underneath the skin. so i spent some time removing the splitter. it was a bit awkward, wearing a headlamp, one leg bent onto my other leg, trying to see the splinter with my aging eyes. the good thing was it was underneath my foot, and the skin is pretty tough, so i could dig away at it without it hurting that much, unlike, say, a fingertip. the splinter wouldn't come out, so i soaked my foot in a plastic basin of hot water for a few minutes, to soften the skin. it still wouldn't come out, so i found my x-acto knife and picked away at the spot until the splinter head finally popped out. from there it was just a simple matter of tweezer extraction. i put a bandaid on it because it bleeding it a little bit.
later in the evening i put in lauryn's flight number (UA656). her new arrival time was 10:30pm. figuring it'd take her at least an hour to clear customs, get her luggage, then ride the T to cambridge, she probably wouldn't get to my house by 11:30pm at the earliest. my sister went to go pick her up from alewife, and they didn't get to my house until after midnight.
i'd never met lauryn before, but seen her a few times from my sister's street facing webcam, though she always had her face mask on. when she arrived she was still wearing her mask, but took it off soon afterwards. having never seen her face before, she wasn't what i imagined. she asked what she should call me, "uncle, or tony?" i said tony was fine. with my sister looking on, i gave lauryn a quick tour of the place, then taught her how to use the front door key. after my sister left, i gave lauryn the wifi password. i also gave her my phone number so she could add me in whatsapp (using her HK number). there was just enough time for me to ask her where she was from originally: hunan. i had some instant noodles for her in case she was hungry (she did eat on the plane from chicago to boston), but she said she just wanted to take a shower and go to bed (don't blame her, she'd been traveling for 24+ hours). her internship doesn't start until friday so she has tomorrow free. there was a time when i would've taken out my roommate on a tour of boston, but lauryn was here last summer, plus she knows the couple currently living in the apartment above my sister's place, so she has people closer to her age who can take her out.
so i haven't had a roommate since the start of the pandemic, when i was basically stuck with kevin and all his neuroses (plus his inability to use the toilet without urinating all over the floor). i already had a taste of the roommate life when PX stayed here for 2 nights last week. i think lauryn will work out fine. i had some preconceived notions, but from first appearances she seems quite normal. plus i don't think she'll pee on the floor.